Best Iron Man Artists Ever

[Dusty.]

In the tradition of the Fantastic Four thread:

I'm not including Bob Layton, even though he's IM's most important artist. I didn't like his pencils, and this is about pencilling, not inking.

1. Kevin Hopgood (what on Earth happened to this guy after IM? He was incredible.)
2. Barry Windsor-Smith (only one issue, but it was really something)
3. John Romita Jr. (I'm hoping he's the artist for the upcoming Iron-Man: The End)
4. Mark Bright (his best work)
5. Jackson Guice (it was a strong 10 issue run)
6. Luke McDonnell (easily his best work)
7. Adi Granov (slick looking, but not my idea of ideal IM art)
8. Paul Ryan (he did solid work on the series)
9. Sean Chen ( he's like Paul Ryan, but not quite as good or fast)
10. Patrick Zircher (he's much better at drawing everything else than he is at drawing IM armor)

[zilch]

Well, duh...


George Tuska and Don Heck.

Old school.

[Holdyourfireal]

George Tuska
Gene Colan
John Romita JR
Mark Bright

[Neptunicus]

John Romita Jr is my favorite even though I think his style suits spider man better...Tuska comes in second.

[Neptunicus]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/40/IronMan18.jpg

[Kirk G]

Ahem!

Jack Kirby and Gene Colan,
if you don't mind.....:rolleyes:

[DDM]

Jim Starlin for his one & only issue Iron Man #55 (introduced some new villain named Thanos).

[Scarlet Speedster]

My favourite is Mark Bright because he was the artist when I started reading Iron Man (around issue 200). I loved his work in Armor Wars and was elated when he did Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn!

[Slam_Bradley]

Gene "The Dean" Colan by a mile.

[Sgt. Preston]

Jackson Guice and JR Jr. for me

[The Sentry]

Older issues - Jackson Guice, Barry Smith.

Recent issues - Granov, Irving, & Quesada.

[Tony Starkz]

Going to throw in Hitch only because I love his Iron Man design in Ultimates.

[Shellhead]

Bob Layton's artwork isn't as good as I remembered it to be, but I still like it more than most other artists that have worked on Iron Man. I like the way that he drew the armor as sleek and shiny, not some gnarly mess of exposed gizmos and wires that would be easily damaged in a fight. His character faces were expressive, at least compared to the oddities that Heck, Colan, and especially Tuska drew. In particular, Tuska sometimes drew people with wild eyes and frightfully large, beaver-like teeth. I assume that Layton designed the costumes of the villains introduced or re-worked during his two tours of duty on Iron Man. Those were some decent costumes.

[captain_unimpressive]

Going to throw in Hitch only because I love his Iron Man design in Ultimates.

That's probably the first compliment I've ever heard directed at Ultimate IM's costume.
There's probably some sort of ribbon being mailed to you as we speak.

Seriously though, does Kirby count here, or is he on every "Best Artist" list by default?

[Holdyourfireal]

Going to throw in Hitch only because I love his Iron Man design in Ultimates.


:eek: :eek: :eek:

[ironrass]

1. Kevin Hopgood (what on Earth happened to this guy after IM? He was incredible.)

War Machine? Hulkbuster? The Modular Armor? Hopgood hasn't been on the book in a decade, yet we all still love his armor designs. He's definitely one of my favs. His run with Kaminski is one of the all-time best runs.

BTW, I just happened to have interviewed Hopgood recently for my Iron Man site: The Iron Man Armory (http://www.ironmanarmory.com).

Granov doesn't deserve to even be on the list with the other guys. Not just b/c his art is a sad, sad attempt to be Alex Ross, but because he's just not that great a storyteller--not to mention the fact that he didn't even put his own touch on the IM legacy. He had a chance to do a whole armor reload and he basically stuck with what the guy before did. Talk about lame. He had something with the potential of Extremis and he's too unimaginative or lazy to come up with something fresh.


Personally can't see Hitch on the list either (esp. not a top 10). Ultimates may be kinda cool, but his Iron Man is kinda boring. It's well-drawn, just nothing special.

[Babylon23]

Bob Layton, JRJR and Gene Colan for me, with Jackson Guice running a close fourth.

While Layton was primarily an inker and co-plotter on interiors, he produced a LOT of IM covers, and did a fair amount of interior pencils as well. It's hard to irnore his contribution to IM.

[recluse357]

Kevin Hopgood for sure. Started reading during his run, and never looked back. His designs and layouts were awesome!

Second goes to Bob Layton's inks over Mark Bright's pencils. Magic!

r.